The Scoop N Scootery in Arlington is right on Mass Ave, a couple of blocks north of Alewife Brook Parkway. The web site describes them as primarily delivery¹ although they do suggest that you can come in and order at the counter, despite limited seating - as you can see from the picture, that's out of date; at least at the Arlington location, it turns out you can literally barricade the door and New Englanders will still come and buy ice cream from you. There's a touch screen with their entire menu and a card swipe box², and someone will appear at the door and call your name to hand you your ice cream (so you don't need to keep track of your order number, although it's otherwise basically the same process as the stream of pickup/delivery orders.)

Their specific Sundae menu is long and varied, but kind of difficult to choose from - I would recommend lingering over their web menu while seated somewhere warm, and possibly just outright ordering online instead of in person. If you're going for something very specific, just start with the "Custom" section at the top.

They do have frozen yogurt, and a range of toppings that includes Blueberry Muffin Crumble and Apple Pie (amidst more conventional choices like Rainbow or Chocolate Sprinkles.) They also have something they call "Sundae Cores" - a hunk of something like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Frosted Red Velvet Cake that serves as an inner layer between ice cream scoops (but is not otherwise explained anywhere.)

They also have a luciously thick whipped cream - it's not really a sundae without whipped cream, right? But even the plain whipped cream is amazing, and they also have Cinnamon and Nutella flavors.

While the indoor option is gone, there is (even now, right before Halloween) a set of picnic benches out front, with the menu QR code on them, and a couple of two-person tables with chairs. While this was fine while waiting for my order, the time of year combined with the north-east facing building (which means that all of the seating is in shadow in the late afternoon) meant that it wasn't a great spot to actually eat, even if you were already bundled up for Autumn weather.

First Visit

The sundae you see in the picture would be a large in most New England shops, but I had some forewarning - that's a "Tasty" which is the second smallest of their four sizes, the "Hungry" and "Legendary" are even bigger - plus the "Sundae Cores" make them a bit more filling than they already look.

I chose whipped cream, caramel syrup, and walnuts for toppings - that really is a generous layer of walnuts immersed in caramel, not just a sprinkling of walnut bits. Beneath that is Butter Pecan (also with sizable nuts) and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough "core" bits; after that there's a layer of the ever-mysterious³ Totally Turtle.

Since "Totally Turtle" already has brownie chunks, combining it with a cookie dough "core" is a little redundant, I'll probably mix and match more carefully next time - or just go with a standard sundae like "Peanut Butter Mudslide", "Mintmallow", or "Strawberry Shortcake". They do have a few seasonal options like "Sweater Weather" and "Nightmare Before Christmas" which currently lean into pumpkin, caramel, and gingerbread.

I should point out that they have a lengthy and creative list of Frozen Yogurt Sundaes as well - while I'm generally dismissive (this is an ice cream site, not a things that wish they were ice cream after all) it does look like they've put some care into it, including the "'Murica" flavor - "French vanilla yogurt topped with fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries and homemade whipped cream" for a dramatic Red White and Blue (at least when served in glass for their photo gallery; not sure it translates to takeout, but it's perhaps worth finding out next 4th of July.)

Kayleigh's Ice Cream is a brand new¹ ice cream shop on 129 in North Billerica². (There is also signage for "Hello! Tea" but that isn't currently a separate thing - it's just that Kayleigh's has fancy coffee drinks and bubble tea as well as ice cream.) Service is indoors; there are some inside tables, as well as a handful of outdoor picnic tables and a decent sized parking lot.

They didn't have a flavor menu for me to take pictures of - they just had two a pair of 8-bucket ice cream fridges, with the flavors written on the acyrlic cover in some sort of neon paint-pen, which was challenging to photograph. (They also had a pastry display.)

First Visit

I got Maple Walnut and Butter Pecan; the maple flavor came through more than most versions (most maple walnut is basically chocolate walnut, which is actually fine - but at Kayleigh's, the chocolate was good and the maple stood out, which was unusual.) The Butter Pecan was decent and had a nice texture too.

Next visit I'll probably try the "Billerica Rocky Road" (which is apparently snarky commentary on the local road quality) and possibly the "Best Chocolate You Never Have!!!".

Their website also credits Bliss Bros Dairy in Attleboro, MA as their upstream dairy source.

Two weeks after Labor Day and they are still staying open until 9pm - which was convenient for me, but they didn't have any other customers at 8:30pm so I wouldn't count on that persisting.

Sterling Ice Cream is on 62 just southeast of 190. It's a fairly large building but there's only really one or two ice cream windows; the other half of the overhang is for fried food and hotdogs, and the other half of the building is "Cafe Fresh Bagel" (which seems to be what has the drive-in service, not sure if you can get ice cream on that side - the bagel places closes at 2, so it's definitely a separate thing.) At least for the summer there's a huge tent with a dozen picnic benches; there's also a vast amount of parking. It's about half a mile from the Davis Mega Maze; it's also not far from Rota Spring Farm Ice Cream.

While tagging pictures, I discovered that this was not my first visit; I was there 11 years ago and had a soft serve dip cone - which seems to no longer be on the menu.¹

I got Monster Mash (lots of candy and cookies in a vanilla base) and Butter Pecan. The Monster Mash was ok, but not nearly as creamy as you find at most ice cream places around here; it may have just been the vanilla base, I should try their "Extreme Chocolate" for comparison. They also had a "Campfire S'mores" and a "Maine Black Bear" flavor.

This is also the second place I've seen listing "Ice Cream Nachos" - the other one was Friendly's who call it "Sugar Cone Nachos". (They also have frozen yogurt, sherbert, and coconut-milk-based "vegan" ice cream.)

Chelmsford Creamery is a little roadside ice cream shack with a huge parking lot, on 3A just south of I-495. (The internet being what it is, this was Gary's Ice Cream from 1973 to 2020 and searching still turns up pictures of the old place.) Counter service with an overhang, and plenty of picnic benches out front and around the lot.

First Visit

I had a bright yellow Butter Pecan, which had more of a buttery taste than I've had before; I made the mistake of having it on top of an Orange Sherbet (I was craving "creamsicle" after missing out on it at Cabot's and it was good - but combining them was a mistake on my part.)

They also had a good strawberry ice cream, with strawberry bits in it. Overall they had a pretty good range of "summer" flavors along with the traditional New England ones.

I do owe them a return visit to get an orange sherbet frappe, and also to try their "Chocolate Decadence" Flavor.